Help! Bought an online test bank not sure what to do!

[NicolleM]

A student in my class bought an online test bank and shared it with the entire class, well little did we know that when we took our test on Monday that it was exactly the same! Could we get kicked out of nursing school for this????

19 other students had it as well!!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I, too, am sorry you and your classmates have to learn such a hard and expensive lesson. However, as my grandmother used to say (a very wise woman), "Some of us are put on this earth to be examples to others, one way or another."

As I've read this thread, I just keep coming back to "caveat emptor" and "if it seems too good to be true it probably is."

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I have never heard of test banks, until these posts that come up once in a while; didn't really know there's a whole cheating-world out there on the Internet!

OP, please let us know what happens.

[AOx1]

OP, I pity your situation but also understand the school's position. I don't fault you if others shared what you honestly believed were study questions. Some publishers, including Elsevier, have both a student test bank and an instructor test bank. In recent years, many instructor test banks have warnings on each page, and many older banks did not have this.

I would consider the major issue to be not immediately reporting the error. I would have reported this immediately after the test, or even during the test if there were several proctors and you could have done so without being disruptive.

Consider an example. A friend offers me a lovely gift for my birthday, a unique piece of jewelry. I love it and wear it in public. I later find out that the item is in fact stolen, and another mutual friend is missing the exact same unusual piece of jewelry. I now have a duty to report it and give it back. No, I didn't steal it or initially know it was stolen, but as soon as I do, I have the duty to do the right thing. This is the area in which you showed poor judgment. Also, be vary wary of anything that is too easily gained. There is no easy way to becoming an excellent nurse. I know you will make better decisions in the future.

Everyone makes a poor ethical decision at some point in their life. The key is to learn and be better in the future. You strike me as someone with good intentions who just made a big error. I wish you the best in the future.

[jetsy62]

I wish the OP would let us know how things worked out.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

elkpark said:

And if I were faculty involved in the situation, I wouldn't buy it. The websites that sell you research papers (to turn in as your own work) also have blurbs on the sites that make it sound like this is some legitimate educational service they are offering, but everyone knows the truth -- they are facilitating students cheating by selling them pre-written papers on the topic of their choice. This seems no different to me. While the OP may have sincerely not initially realized what was going on, I'm pretty sure the student who originally purchased the test bank probably knew what s/he was doing. Anyone who didn't speak up at the moment that s/he recognized the questions on the test were verbatim from the "study materials" doesn't really have a defense, IMO.

I agree with you and clearly the student knew something was amiss because she/he posted before the school knew anything.

However people fall prey to scammers ALL the time does that make it any less illegal what the scammer did to obtain that money illegally? Should the person who was scammed just have to suffer because they were gullible and/or foolish? I don't think so. Is Bernie Nadoff any less guilty because people were foolish enough to believe him?

I agree if it seems too good it probably is.

I made sure my daughter saw this for she in entering college in the fall...she had never heard of this nor did she know that there were people who write papers for a living.

If repeat offenders of DUI's can still drive these kids deserve a second chance. Use this as an educational opportunity have them give talks to incoming freshman or maybe local high schools. This is no reason to ruin them.

[elkpark]

Esme12 said:

I agree with you and clearly the student knew something was amiss because she/he posted before the school knew anything.

However people fall prey to scammers ALL the time does that make it any less illegal what the scammer did to obtain that money illegally? Should the person who was scammed just have to suffer because they were gullible and/or foolish? I don't think so. Is Bernie Nadoff any less guilty because people were foolish enough to believe him?

I agree if it seems too good it probably is.

I made sure my daughter saw this for she in entering college in the fall...she had never heard of this nor did she know that there were people who write papers for a living.

If repeat offenders of DUI's can still drive these kids deserve a second chance. Use this as an educational opportunity have them give talks to incoming freshman or maybe local high schools. This is no reason to ruin them.

I'm not sure I see your point. I'm certainly not proposing that the "scammers" are any "less guilty" (although, in this case and the case of websites selling research papers, they're not doing anything "illegal"). And, in life, plenty of people do end up suffering and experiencing a significant loss simply because they were gullible and/or foolish. AFAIK, most of Bernie Madoff's victims are not getting much of their losses compensated. People get raw deals and the "short end of the stick" every day. Sometimes the situation is salvageable, sometimes it isn't.

Now, if the OP had gotten up out of her/his seat as soon as s/he recognized the tests questions, gone to the professor or whoever was in the front of the room, and said, "Wait a minute, Dr. X, something's wrong; I recognize these questions verbatim from study materials that were circulated among the class," I would have no problem. IMO, that would have been the best thing to do in that situation, and it's certainly what I would have done as a student if I had ever found myself in that situation.

I'm sure that there is an academic honesty policy somewhere in the handbook for the school of nursing, or for the larger college/uni of which the SON is a part, and it is the responsibility of the studenst to be familiar with the policy and the consequences of violating it. If you're mature and responsible enough to be in college studying nursing (or anything else), you're mature and responsible enough to be aware of your responsibilities to the school and be accountable for your actions.

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

There are legit practice banks out there to help pass NCLEX. Our publisher had free and paid practice study questions. Actually, the paid version was very, very similar to the teacher's test bank according to a friend. For peds, her class used the test bank because half the questions would be worded similarly or word from word. It was a legit practice student test bank though.

ATI was similar as there would always be 5 questions word from word or very similar on the final ATI. It drove me nuts.

[springchick1, ADN, RN]

applesxoranges said:

There are legit practice banks out there to help pass NCLEX. Our publisher had free and paid practice study questions. Actually, the paid version was very, very similar to the teacher's test bank according to a friend. For peds, her class used the test bank because half the questions would be worded similarly or word from word. It was a legit practice student test bank though.

ATI was similar as there would always be 5 questions word from word or very similar on the final ATI. It drove me nuts.

But there is a difference between a study bank and a test bank. If the OP bought a study bank, that's one thing. If they bought a test bank, well, that's an entirely different type of situation.

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

To be fair, I would make the mistake myself. I called my Kaplan question bank test banks because it allowed me to set up practice tests. I called the Saunders CD a test bank because it has practice tests on it.

I am willing to bet whoever bought the test bank didn't know it was an instructor's test bank otherwise they are very stupid for passing it out to the class.

[NicolleM]

Sorry I haven't been on lately guys. Been working full time again since there hasn't been school... Waiting for results from my 3rd appeal in the process. So far no one has gotten back in. Their reasoning for not letting us back in is bc of the time frame that we told the truth.

This is is not showing on our transcripts we just can't apply for the nursing program at the same school again. At least now I know what to do in the future and I'm applying at other nursing schools.

[exp626]

Best of luck to you, Nicolle. I've been keeping you in my thoughts since I found this thread. I had no idea what a test bank was until I read this, and I don't think I'd have known any better, either. (I do better studying alone, and this is a good argument for that...I stick with the prescribed and recommended reading!) Whether you waited or not to tell is now a thing of the past, but as I believe you've said, it was learning experience. However your appeal turns out, I'm so glad for you that it's not in your transcript! I send you ((HUGS)) and support.